Motorola Radius Programming in Windows with RSS and DOSBox

Programming the Motorola Radius

Programming the Motorola Radius was not easy to learn. It took me about a week to figure out how to accomplish this dreadful task. Let's jump right in and start programming your Motorola Radius series (GM300/GR300/M10/M120/M130) radio!

Cables Required to Program the Motorola Radius

The cables and connectors required to program your Motorola Radius will vary from computer to computer. If you have a newer model computer, chances are that you do not have a serial port. If you have an older model computer, you are probably in luck.

To see if you have a serial port on your computer, look at the connections for a port labeled "Serial". It will have nine pins and look like the picture below.

If you do have a serial port, you do not need to purchase the USB Serial Port Adapter.

If you don't have a serial port on your computer, don't panic! It just means one more cable and a little more time spent in adjusting the settings. Either way you will need to get a programming cable for the Motorola Radius. One end will be a DB9/RS232 female. The other end will be a RJ45 male. Computers without serial ports will also need a USB serial port adapter.

WARNING! - Some cheap USB serial port adapters do not work to program your Motorola Radius. I had to trash two different USB serial port adapters before I found one that worked for me. I do not know if the one that works on my computer will work on your computer. With that being said, the USB serial port adapter I use is a Tripp Lite USA-19HS High-Speed USB Serial Adapter.

The Motorola Radio Service Software needs to be run on DOS. If you already have access to DOS, great! If not, you need to download and install a DOS-emulator. DOSBox is compatible with many different platforms, such as Windows, BeOS, Linux, MacOS X and more.

Getting Setup to Program the Motorola Radius

The first thing you need to do is get your hardware setup. Plug in your USB Serial Port Adapter to your computer. Attach the Motorola programming cable to the Radius and the USB Serial Port Adapter.

Note: If you have an existing serial port on your computer, just plug your Motorola programming cable into your Radius and the computer's serial port.

We now need to make sure that the USB Serial Port Adapter has been assigned port COM1 or COM2. This can be accomplished by checking the Device Manager. The Device Manager can be accessed by bringing up the Start Menu and typing "Device Manager" in the Search Programs and Files area.

How to Change the COM Port Number

If you plugged in your USB Serial Port Adapter and a COM port other then COM1 or COM2 was assigned in the Device Manager, follow the steps below.

Open the "Device Manager".

CHANGE THE COM PORT

Right click on the USB Serial Port and select Properties.

DEVICE MANAGER PROPERTIES

Click the "Port Settings" tab, and then select the button labeled "Advanced".

DEVICE MANAGER PROPERTIES SETTINGS

Click the drop-down menu from where it says "COM Port Number" and select "COM1" or "COM2".

DEVICE MANAGER ADVANCED SETTINGS

Note: If COM1 and COM2 are both in use, you must select one of them. It will give you a warning that the port was opened by another application, and may have an unpredictable effect (on the other application). You must select "Yes".

Adjusting the COM Port Settings

The COM Port Settings will need to be adjusted in order to communicate with your Motorola Radius.

If you are not already there, open the "Device Manager", right click on the USB Serial Port and select "Properties".

DEVICE MANAGER PROPERTIES

Click the “Port Settings” tab, and then change the "Bits per second" drop-down menu to 2400.

DEVICE MANAGER BPS

(You might not have to do this step. If you have problems, change this back to the default setting.) Click the "Advanced" button and change the "Receive FIFO Size" setting to "None" from the drop-down menu.

DEVICE MANAGER FIFO SETTINGS

Confirm and close both boxes by clicking "OK".

Configuring DOSBox to Run Motorola RSS

Download and install DOSBox if you have not done so yet.

Click the "Start Menu" and in the "Search Programs and Files" area, type and select "DOSBox Options".

Your default text editor will open with the DOSBox conf file. Change the the conf files "serial" settings to:

Starting Motorola's Radio Service Software

Now it's time to see if we did so far is correct. Let's start DOSBox and see what happens. You should see a welcome screen that tells you to push any button, and then the following screen below. If you see this screen above, congratulate yourself! You have successfully configured DOSBox to run Motorola's Radio Service Software.

Now comes the part that just about everyone has trouble with . . . getting your Motorola Radius to communicate with your computer. Cheap programming cables, and too fast of a CPU speed (on your computer/DOSBox) are the main cause of this problem. We already discussed what cables worked for me. Now let's go over how to slow down the CPU speed.

Slowing Down the CPU Speed in DOSBox

While DOSBox is running, hold down the "Ctrl" key and press "F11" until the CPU Speed (displayed in the title bar) reaches somewhere around 191 cycles. If you went too far, hold down the "Ctrl" key and press "F12" to raise the speed back up. I was able to successfully program with a CPU Speed of up to 400 cycles.

Configuring and Testing the Motorola RSS

Now it's time to configure the RSS, and test the connection between your computer and your Motorola Radius.

From the "Main Menu" of the Motorola RSS, press "F9" to get into the "Setup Computer Configuration Menu".

Note: If you are using COM2, make sure to change the "RIB" setting to COM2.

Now press "F8" to save your settings.

Press "F3" to preform a "COMM TEST". This is where you will find out if your computer and your radio will be able to communicate. Look to make sure you get the "Radio Communications OK" message. If you get any error messages, double check everything above, and make sure all the settings are correct.

Programming Frequencies, Tones, Offset, and the Time Out Timer

If you are not at the Main Menu, press "F10" until you get there. Press "F3" to "GET/SAVE Codeplug Data".

Now press "F2" for the "READ Radio" option.

You should see a screen that looks like the one pictured below.

After that is complete, press "F10" and then "F4" to get to the "CHANGE/VIEW Codeplug" menu. Now press "F5" to get into the "MODE Configuration: Frequency, Squelch Type, and Codes" menu.

This is where you can change the frequencies, PL tones, offset, and time out timer.

Note: The "Tab" key will navigate you around in this menu, and "F4" will take you to the next channel settings.

Change the settings to what you require, and then press "F10" twice to return to the "Main Menu".

Now press "F3" and then "F8" to select the "PROGRAM Radio" option. A warning screen will appear. Press "F2" to continue programming your Motorola Radius.

This is the screen (below) that you will see when your Motorola Radius is programming.

Joseph Neale

I need a little help I have followed all the steps up to the comm test. I have tried the comm test and get ‘Accessing Serial Bus.” but it stays on that. I don’t get an error or anything else. I even tried reading the codeplug and got the same message. Reading codeblock does not come up. I even left it there for 10 minutes. I using a computer with Windows Vista Business. Thanks in advance for any help.

What cable(s) are you using? If you are using cheap cables that’s where you will get stuck. The only cable(s) that I have found to work are the ones mentioned in the article. If you have those exact cables, try changing the CPU cycles (probably up in your case being it’s an older Vista computer). Hope that helps.

Joseph Neale

The cable is probably the problem. I did order a programming cablf withe the serial plug off of eBay but I think it was one of the cheaper ones. I clicked on the link for programming cables on your site and it sent me to one on Amazon that was sold out.

That really stinks! You will probably have to just do what I did and keep ordering different cables until you find one that works. Try to search for GM300 RIBless cable schematics if you are capable of modifying your current cable, or even better – build your own RIB and dumb cable. The RIB is a lot better way to go.

Joseph Neale

September 22, 2015 |

I haven’t gotten my new cable yet but I tried changing a couple of setting on my computer and not it is giving me “#7 INVALID OPP CODE” when I try to read the radio. When I just do the COMM TEST it gives me that error for a second then tells me Radio Communications good. Is there a setting that needs changing or do you know anything about that? Thanks for your help and Thank you for this site too.

jim

Joseph Neale

Adding to my last comment I had switched it from COM1 to COM2 in all the settings above because it was giving me that at first when I switched it to COM2 that is when it wouldn’t do anything. I had forgotten what the error was because it flashed up too quick that is why I didn’t include it in my first question.

Jack

KJ4VOV

If it’s the first time saving that file then that will pop up, since there’s no such file created yet. Go ahead and save it anyway and that will fix the problem.

Another reason this can happen is the drive letter not being correct for how the drive was mounted. For example, if I mount my D: drive as the C: in DOSbox, I have to make sure the path I set corresponds to that and set the path as going to drive C:, not drive D: (because DOSbox will change it to the correct drive when it comes through).

mike

nice, i do the same via DOSBox for Radius GP300 (old type) via Homemade MAX232 Com/TTl programmer (http://batlabs.com/images/mrib.gif) and it works fine on P4 2Ghz CPU. For GP300 with LCD and keyb, the sw R05.03.00 (r other versions ) does not work , i have 057 on the lcd when pressing 2 sidekeys and PTT at turning on the TRX. Do i need other sw for this GP300 2T/DTMF version? or other start-up keys to press ?? vy73 mike on6jf

AA1PR

KJ4VOV

First, my compliments on a great resource you’ve created here. Your work on it is much appreciated. Second, like many others here I’m also encountering the “Error #7 INVALID OP CODE” problem. The PC I’m using is one I built myself, specifically for amateur radio, so it does have a native serial port. The cable is from KJ6ZWL, as is the RSS software. Under Win 7 and the latest DOSbox I get the error flashing on the screen very briefly and then the “Radio Communications OK” message when testing the comms. Attempts to read the radio result in the same error displayed and failure. At the same time, in the DOSbox status window I’m seeing a serial port error that the RX buffer overflowed. This makes me believe the problem is a handshaking issue, that either the radio or the computer is not pausing when it should. I’ve tried experimenting with the handshaking (XON/XOFF, hardware, none) to no effect, but this was with DOSbox and RSS running, so changing the settings without exiting and restarting DOSbox may not have any effect. I’ll experiment further and report back. It would help a lot though to know what ALL of your port settings are set at, not just baud and FIFO. Regarding FIFO, Windows 7 advanced settings do no permit setting RX to zero. It uses sliders and RX is 1-14 (because that’s the size of the buffer in the UART chip) and the TX buffer is 1-16 characters. You can untick the checkbox, which would turn off the buffering completely, but that does not seems to have any effect on this problem (so far).

Rick

KJ4VOV

I did what Clifford (above) did and ordered the same cable he did from Amazon. It arrived today and, with no other changes to the system, read and programmed both radios without a problem. Evidently there is a problem with some programming cables, even ones that aren’t cheap junk from Chine (mine was from KJ6ZWL – custom made) but this one from Amazon works beautifully!

faisal

I read code plug sm50 Radius. I used win 8.1 or win 10, dosbox and Tripple-lite cable usa-19sh. I didn’t meet any problem. No power cycle needed. When I used prolific usb serial cable, I had to power cycle between read/write code plug. Thanks for your advices on this blog.

Ryan

Jeff

I am using DOSBox on my Windows computer. I have a known working RIB box. I’m trying to read a Radius M208. I also have the correct RSS ver R07.20.01. I have DOSBox configured to use COM1. DOSBox starts my RSS perfectly. I use the CNTRL F11 and F12 keys to adjust the CPU to about 275. Now when I run the COM TEST it responds perfectly with RADIO ACESS OK. Now when I go to read the radios codeplug I get the status bar and the computer attempts to read the radio but after a minute or less I start seeing Overrun RX errors on my DOSBox window. After reading about Overrun RX issues I tried playing with the FIFO buffers by first turning it off, by adjusting for various settings, and still get the overrun errors on RX. I also set the COM1 port to 2400 baud, 8, N, 1.

Not sure what else to try. Can you send some light on what else I might need to do?

Try adding rxdelay=200 to your [serialports] section in the DOSBox configuration file. Increase or decrease the number if 200 doesn’t work to see if it helps.

rxdelay: How long (milliseconds) to delay received data if the interface is not ready. Increase this value if you encounter overrun errors in the DOSBox Status Window. Default: 100https://www.dosbox.com/DOSBoxManual.html

Jeff

Jeff

I set the CPU to 191 cycles and added the “rxdelay=200” and I am now able to read the codeplug! Just wrote new codeplug to radio and checked out radio with service monitor, ALL GOOD! I really appreciate you taking the time to respond so quickly. I was going to give up when I decided to send you the e-mail with my issue, sure glad I did!